From the one di-men-sional to the comprehensive view of history

Abstract

The Cyclops, those undefeatable giants of Greek mythology, had their eye in the middle of their forehead—in the exact place of the third eye, to which other world views have attributed intuitive or wholeness in sight. This ability was foreign to the Cyclops. They ’saw’ only with one eye. Monocular seeing admittedly also creates ‘realistic’ images in the brain, but missing from these images is three-dimensionality and complexity. This leads to painful collisions with ‘reality.’ Brigitte Dehne utilizes this image in the subtitle of her book Gender in the History Lesson (Gender in Geschichtsunterricht), which makes “gender,” a category that has long been an exceptional and elaborately discussed concept in historical studies, accessible as a method of approach in the history classroom.